The Things We Ate: Winter Camping in Stokes State Forest

Stokes State Forest is a two hour's drive from Brooklyn. Sure it was just January, but we hadn't been camping since California, and that doesn't bode well with us. So four of us rented a car, took 280 out of Jersey City, bought provisions at Dale's (and Kent's Liquor store) just off 206, and spent a beautiful 24 hours among tall trees and half frozen streams with nothing on our minds but maintaining a fire and what we'd eat next. Here's a look at the things we ate.

Lunch was sausages and hotdogs. On the left are hot Italian sausages from Eagle Provisions in South Slope. They're delicious, and all the more so when cooked over fire. The store-bought dog from Dale's on the right is wearing brown mustard and homemade sauerkraut.

Dale's had some pork tenderloins we thought would grill up nice. We chopped up onion and threw it all in foil with salt and pepper and a dash of mustard and made a hot bed of coals to cook them on. We had tangerines and bourbon with us so we made a sauce out of it and reduced it to a glaze while the pork loins cooked.

The unveiling.

Dinner: baked beans, polenta, and pork tenderloin.

Two of the folks with us weren't familiar with hobo pies, so we gave them a taste with a dessert one after dinner. It's nothing more than white bread and cherry pie filling cooked together in a hobo pie maker (more hobo pics to follow).

For coffee, we took water from a hole in a nearby half-frozen stream that opened to moving water.

We didn't have butter, but it turns out bagels dipped in bacon fat is incredible.

Scrambled eggs and cheesy grits.

Fried eggs and salty bacon (also courtesy of Eagle Provisions).

Breakfast.

Gotta have PAM. If you don't give a generous spray to each side of the hobo pie maker the bread or tortillas or whatever you choose to use will burn and stick. This is a hobo pizza: white bread, generic shredded cheese, and store-bought pizza sauce. A strange thing happens with hobo pies. The less artisan the ingredients, the better the final product.

Hobo 'za.

The possibilites are endless with a hobo pie maker. We had a tin of sardines that turned into a Romana pizza. Shredded cheese and tortillas? Quesadilla. Egg sandwiches work too. Just crack an egg between two pieces of bread, add cheese and voila. You could make a s'more sandwich. Tuna melt. Reuben. Cheesesteak. Chicken parm etc.

Winter camping is primitive. The only worries are of the primal variety: maintain a fire, eat, drink, and wander through the woods. When it's 15 degrees out there's very little time for anything else but the aforementioned activities. Those things become all you think about and it makes the hustle of the city seem light years away. We'll go again soon. Who's in?